Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明, Toriyama Akira), born April 5, 1955, is a Japanese manga and game artist. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball—his best-known work—and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the series and . Toriyama is regarded as one of the artists that changed the history of manga, as his works are highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration. Akira Toriyama recalls that when he was in elementary school all of his classmates drew, imitating anime and manga, as a result of not having many forms of entertainment.DRAGON　BALL　大全集　6: MOVIES & TV SPECIALS (in Japanese). Shueisha. 1995. pp. 212–216. He believes that he began to advance above everyone else when he started drawing pictures of his friends, and after winning a prize at the local art studio for a picture of , began to think "art was fun". Toriyama has a love of cars and motorcycles, something he inherited from his father who used to race motorbikes and operated an auto repair business for a brief time.Dr. Slump volume 14, pape 145 Assistants # Hisashi Tanaka # Takashi Matsuyama Involvement & Comments As the author of the original Dragon Ball series, Toriyama's decisions and declarations are treated as canon. Additionally, his level of involvement is a determining factor in the canon-status of a work/adaptation. They are recorded here out of convenience and for reference. Dragon Ball * Akira Toriyama was involved in the Dragon Ball anime in an advisory capacity, and personally selected the voice actresses for Son Goku and Krillin. DRAGON　BALL　大全集　3 TV ANIMATION PART 1. Shueisha. 1995. pp. 202–207. Dragon Ball Z Post-Dragon Ball Z Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods * In addition to personally creating the story for this movie—treating it as an official continuation of his manga—Toriyama also created a design for the Super Saiyan God form, which conflicted with a design already created by character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro. The two reportedly went back and forth before settling on an official design. Yamamuro Interview * "It has apparently been 17 years since the last Dragon Ball animated movie! For all the animation up to now, I have basically jut left everything up the staff, '''so this is my first try at being involved, starting from the story's creation'. The key words this time, "God of Destruction Beerus" and "Super Saiyan God", were suggestions from the scriptwriter, but they were good ideas for presenting a crisis for the main characters, who had grown so strong that they had reached a point where there was nothing higher. After first deciding on Beerus' character design and background, I tried thinking up an original story imagining it is if the serialization had continued. What is more, the God of Destruction Beerus, who this time I designed with rare freedom, is a terrifying opponent so overwhelmingly strong that he surpasses the dimension of previous opponents. But it is my trademark to not let things get too dark. At the very least, I am satisfied that it has been finished up as a very entertaining piece of work."Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, movie pamphlet Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F Dragon Ball Online * Toriyama was involved with the creation of ''Dragon Ball Online, in which he personally oversaw and created the story, character art, and timeline for the series.Bandai Namco Games, Dragon Ball Online Officially Announced, Akira Toriyama to Supervise All Aspects, Service to Start in South Korea in Summer of 2007, Japan in 2008 (バンダイナムコゲームス、「ドラゴンボールオンライン」を正式発表鳥山明氏全面監修、韓国で2007年夏、日本で2008年サービス開始予定) The timeline, in particular, stretches from the end of Dragon Ball Z until the beginning of the game.Dragon Ball Online Dragon Ball GT * "For GT, all I did was come up with the title, design, the initial main cast and some of the machines, and I also did a few images."Dragon Box GT Dragon Ball GT DVD Box Set Involvement with Dragon Ball GT Toriyama is credited as the "original author" in the credits for Dragon Ball GT; contrary to popular belief, this does not mean that he wrote the series, but rather that he was merely the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise.[http://www.kanzenshuu.com/production/gt/ Kanzenshuu] GT Production Staff He drew rough drafts of the GT logo, as well as the designs for the characters. Additionally, Toriyama drew a sketch of Super Saiyan 4 Goku for the GT DVD box set. Below the picture, he comments that his involvement in GT was minimal, including naming the series, designing the main cast (and a few machines), as well as a few pictures for the series. References Category:Dragon Ball